Saturday, March 31, 2007

blergghh

Finished Argosy. Too sick to write anything clever. You go look at Harry Potter cover art. I'll go read a Star Wars novel and moan weakly. The cat cares. mahgfuadhibjnhjfw...

Monday, March 26, 2007

belated blogiversay

I meant to post something on the 24th, which was the official one-year anniversary of this blog, but I wanted to post something...special. Something exciting. But, it wasn't finished yet. Heh.

So, last night (or this morning, if you want, but I generally consider everything before I went to sleep as yesterday, no matter what standard time keeping systems might have to say about it) at 3AM, I finished...a sweater!



And of course, I immediately rushed to take dorky blog pictures. I suppose that picture doesn't look quite so dorky, since I cropped out my dorky head. My face looked a lot like my driver's license photo, which basically looks like "WHEEEE!! DRIVER'S LICENSE!!!" Just replace "driver's license" with "sweater" and, well, you know...



Here you see the sweater actually being blocked, and the cat suffering intense inner conflict, as her urge to lay all over any piece of clothing battles with her deep dislike of touching anything wet.

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

black sheep

Usually, I avoid horror movies at all costs, but this made me laugh hysterically. Maybe it's a Shaun of the Dead thing; it's kind of scary but you're supposed to laugh. Or maybe they just didn't realize that zombie sheep are hilarious. Or maybe I'm crazy.

Monday, March 12, 2007

options socks

When I was in middle school, I met a girl named Kristen. Kristen never, ever wore matching socks. Ever. She probably still doesn't. In fact, I really hope she still doesn't, because I always thought it was fabulous. Who cares if your socks match? Why wear two that are the same, if you don't want to? Besides, if your socks don't match, you don't have to fold them. You can just throw them all in your drawer and pull two out at random every day! Fabulous! I have occasionally thought about doing this, but I absolutely could not stand it if the socks felt different on my feet.

Later, I discovered knitting blogs, and people knitting socks, and people who go to great lengths to make their hand knit socks match. Please, if you are one of those people, I don't think there's anything wrong with it. It's ok. I like my silverware to match*, so I kind of understand. I've knit matching socks. But I was thinking about the lovely wall of Koigu at the yarn shop, and how you have to buy two skeins of Koigu to make a pair of matching socks. But, all the Koigu would probably feel the same, no? So what's stopping me from buying two, or four, or maybe just three different skeins and knitting them all into socks using the same pattern? Mix and match socks! It'd be spectacular. Kristen would be proud.




*If you are thinking "but obviously when you buy a set of silverware, all the pieces match..." then I must tell you about my parents' silverware, which is comprised of not one, but three different sets of silverware. As a child, if I was setting the table for dinner, I would always make sure the silverware at each place setting matched. And sometimes, if I was irritated at someone, I'd give them mismatching silverware, although I doubt they even noticed, much less felt the burning sting of my reproach.

Thursday, March 08, 2007

easily amused

This afternoon* I knit a wee lace swatchie from this pattern (first one on the page), and then I blocked it. It was really, really fun. I giggled while I did it. Even the cat was impressed (she didn't say so, but I know). I ran out of straight pins (I only own six), so I used some thumbtacks too. When I was done, I pointed at it and giggled some more. I'm glad my roommate is napping.



*By this afternoon, I mean I just did this about five minutes ago, and I wanted to blog about it right away, while I still feel rather clever.

Monday, March 05, 2007

tasty mittens

So I talk to my friend Adam about knitting a lot. Adam doesn't knit, but he doesn't seem to mind the knitting talk. This is probably because I listen when he tells me all about ballroom dancing and playing the carillon, activities which are not listed among my hobbies.

A few weeks ago I offered to knit Adam some orange thrummed mittens, because he thought my thrummed mittens were cool, and I have a whole bunch of roving left over from the mittens I made my dad for Christmas (which I don't have a picture of. They were black and thrummed. I think you can work it out for yourself). I bought way too much roving, I know, but I was thinking about making a drop spindle and learning how to spin...

*ahem*

Adam and I had this conversation earlier:

Me: I think I'm going to have to dye the wool myself, though, because I went to see if they have orange wool in the brand I like to use for mittens and there wasn't any. It'll be fun, and I have an excuse to learn how to dye wool with Kool-Aid now.

Him: Kool Aid?! I can't wait until you're done with the mittens... so I can taste them.

sign of the apocalypse #397

Last night I was sitting around, feeling kind of bored, and dreading the return to classes today. Usually when this kind of mood hits, I knit something. Obviously. So, I picked up several different knitting projects, knit a row (at most) and then discarded each of them. I went over the stash in my mind, wondering if I could cast on anything new. Nothing occurred to me. Then I thought, "I should do the dishes."

I should mention here that when I started living in my own apartment, most chores really didn't bug me too much. They probably don't get done as often as they should, but I don't really mind doing them. But I realized very quickly that I really, really detest washing dishes.

But last night, I filled the sink up with hot, soapy water, and sang songs from Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals, and had a really satisfying time washing the freaking dishes. I willingly washed dishes instead of knitting, and I had a nice time doing it. Dios mia.

Sunday, March 04, 2007

go go gryffindor

The Gryffindor scarf is off the needles! I think... I may actually add two more stripes, but we'll see after I finish the mittens. I did start the mittens, but they are a teensy bit smaller than I'd like, and for some reason have ladders. Ladders! My first pair of socks didn't have any ladders! This must be the universe's idea of a funny joke, "Heh heh, let her get away ladder-free the first few times she makes stuff with DPNs, then BAM! Out of nowhere! Ladder her dead! Muahahaha!"

We are not amused.

Other not-amusing things include an unsuccesful battery harvesting. I did raid my small, unused electronics, and got a total of six double A batteries from my CD walkman (Duracell), my portable tape recorder (Energizer), and my Gameboy (Polaroid). My camera only requires four double A batteries, but apparently they all have to be the same brand, because no combination of any of those brands would make the camera stay on for longer than it took to give me the raspberry tell me to change the batteries. Picky picky.

I have not knit a single stitch on the Bayerische sock since I spouted off about wanting to finish it over slack week. It has been lying on the floor by my desk giving me accusatory looks every time I walk by ("Yeah I know where you're going. You don't even want to be in the same room with me. You're going to the living room to work on that scarf. I am way more impressive looking than the scarf. Didn't you see your Grandmother's face when you showed me to her? She didn't look at that stupid scarf that way. And you know what, everyone's going to think you're a nerd when you wear that scarf." Hey sock, guess what? Chicken butt.)

Yesterday I bought some yarn at Zeller's because I thought it was funny. I mean, everyone giggles when they see grey chenille, right?